Like it or not, Leicester would be a big step up for Lewis Dunk’s career

According to reports from various different media outlets, Lewis Dunk to Leicester City for £45m is all but a done deal.

As soon as Harry Maguire completes a successful medical with Manchester United, Dunk will be winging his way to the King Power Stadium to replace the England international at the heart of the Foxes defence.

Remarkably, there are some Seagulls fans out there who seem to think Dunk shouldn’t move to Leicester if the opportunity does indeed arise.

They say that signing for the 2015-16 Premier League champions who have finished ninth for the past two seasons wouldn’t be a step up on playing for Brighton, who collected 36 points last season and who haven’t finished higher than 15th in the top flight for over 35 years.

It’s a view that takes wearing blue and white tinted spectacles to the extreme. Leicester could be great for Dunk’s career at an age where he needs to be making the most of his undoubted talents.

Why wouldn’t you want to swap a team who most bookies have pegged as fourth favourites for relegation for one who some believe will finish seventh?

In fact, there is every chance that Leicester could crack the top six this season. With Arsenal having a transfer budget that is on a par with a nine-year-old girls weekly pocket money, Chelsea serving a transfer ban under a manager whose career record reads one sixth placed finish in the Championship and Manchester United in transition, there looks to be a real opportunity for someone to break the monopoly.

Leicester have an excellent manager in Brendan Rodgers who, if you ignore the fact that he can often sound like a bad David Brent tribute act, is probably one of the best in the league.

They are spending money and on paper it looks like they are doing it wisely. Youri Tielemans has arrived from Monaco and Ayoze Pérez is a proven Premier League performer signed from Newcastle United.

Those two add to an already impressive squad. The likes of Jamie Vardy and Kasper Schmeichel are experienced campaigners and in Demari Gray, James Maddison, Ben Chilwell and Harvey Barnes, Leicester have a number of young English players who are only going to get better. The potential if they can keep their squad together is huge.

Of those, Chilwell has begun to establish himself in Gareth Southgate’s England side and Gray has also received a call up. It seems a matter of when rather than if Maddison makes the jump from the Under 21s to a fully fledged Three Lion.

Dunk’s international hopes could receive a significant boost by moving to Leicester. Those three are on the cusp of the England squad while a look at the man who Dunk would be replacing at the Foxes is a story in itself; Maguire having gone from relegated with Hull City to World Cup hero and England international in his two years at the King Power.

Some Brighton fans point to Dunk being “one of our own” as a reason for him to stay. But that’s clutching at straws a little.

Yes, he came through the ranks at the Albion and has worked his way from teenager in League One to England international in nearly 10 years with the club, but he only joined in the first place because Wimbledon moved to Milton Keynes and it was too far to travel for a 10-year-old.

Dunk is in fact a big Chelsea fan. That’s what made him being linked with Aston Villa earlier in the summer seem a little more credible given that he’d have been working under his idol John Terry, who is currently assistant manager at Villa Park.

It seems to be forgotten that Dunk also tried to force a £5m move to Fulham through in the summer of 2015. He handed in a transfer request and was subsequently dropped by Chris Hughton, only regaining his place in the starting line up three months into the season when Uwe Hunemeier and Gordon Greer were struck down by injury.

A move to Villa wouldn’t have been a step up for Dunk. If it was the Premier League newcomers he was heading to, Brighton fans would have every right to lament the transfer given that Dean Smith’s side will be fighting for survival along with the Albion this season.

Leicester won’t be. Unless something goes seriously awry in the East Midlands, they’ll be battling away in the top 10 and Dunk will be enhancing his England credentials.

From a Brighton point of view, the fee is fair as well. We’re getting £45m for a 28-year-old who may not improve much further, who has one international cap to his name and who has only played two seasons of top flight football in his entire career. Tony Bloom will be receiving half of what he paid to build the Amex – for one player.

Nobody wants to see Dunk leave, but it isn’t hard to see why he might want to take the chance. And if he does, it will be well earned.

He’s been a huge part of the Albion’s rise through the divisions and at an age when most defenders are in their prime, you couldn’t blame him for wanting to enhance his international credentials at a club which can challenge for Europe. After all Dunk has done for Brighton, he deserves the opportunity – if Leicester are willing to give him it.